Western Area Power Administration

Last updated
Western Area Power Administration, as one of four power marketing administrations in the U.S. Department of Energy, is responsible for marketing and delivering wholesale federal hydropower to customers in 15 central and western states. Workers from Western Area Power Administration de-energize high power lines (7987054822).jpg
Western Area Power Administration, as one of four power marketing administrations in the U.S. Department of Energy, is responsible for marketing and delivering wholesale federal hydropower to customers in 15 central and western states.

As one of the four power marketing administrations within the U.S. Department of Energy, the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA)'s role is to market wholesale hydropower generated at 57 hydroelectric federal dams operated by the Bureau of Reclamation, United States Army Corps of Engineers and the International Boundary and Water Commission. WAPA delivers this power through a more than 17,000-circuit-mile, high-voltage power transmission system to more than 700 preference power customers across the West. Those customers, in turn, provide retail electric service to more than 40 million consumers. WAPA is headquartered in the Denver, Colorado suburb of Lakewood, Colorado.[ citation needed ]

Contents

WAPA’s service territory spans 15 central and western states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.

History

WAPA was created in Section 302 of the Department of Energy Organization Act signed into law by President Jimmy Carter, Aug. 4, 1977. [1] Under the statute, WAPA assumed power marketing responsibilities and ownership, operation and maintenance of the federal transmission system from the Bureau of Reclamation. Reclamation retained responsibility for other uses of the multi-purpose water projects, including dam and powerplant construction, operation and maintenance.

Power marketing

WAPA's hydropower resources are produced at federal dams in 11 states, representing about 40 percent of hydroelectric generation in the western and central United States. WAPA also formerly marketed the United States’ 547-megawatt entitlement from the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station near Page, Arizona until its closure on 18 November 2019.

Hydropower is considered a byproduct of the federal dams whose primary purpose is to store water for irrigation and to provide navigation and flood control. Before hydropower, multiple other uses were adopted for federal dams, including municipal and industrial water needs, recreation, salinity control and fish and wildlife. Initial powerplants at the dams were constructed to first serve project-use loads and then to provide revenue from power sales. [2]

WAPA first reserves power to meet project needs called project-use power; this energy powers the facilities at the dams and pumps water at Federal irrigation projects. WAPA then sells the surplus generation at cost-based rates to preference power customers under long-term contracts. Any remaining hydropower is then sold at market-based prices on the short-term spot market.

Cost-based rates are designed to cover annual operations and maintenance and the federal investment in the facilities, plus interest. WAPA only charges market rates when selling surplus hydropower and transmission capacity in the open market after meeting all contractual obligations.

WAPA offers four basic types of contracts: [3]

WAPA sells the generation from dams and powerplants on a project-specific basis. A project may consist of one large powerplant or the combined generation of several powerplants of varying sizes. Although Congress often determines the definition of a project, WAPA has combined projects into 11 rate-setting systems [4] to sell the power and set rates more effectively and efficiently:

WAPA and its energy-producing partners are separately managed and financed. In addition, each water project maintains a separate financial system and records.

Transmission system

WAPA owns, operates and maintains a more than 17,000-circuit-mile, high-voltage transmission system that represents more than 10 percent of the transmission lines in the Western Electricity Coordinating Council area. The transmission capacity is first reserved to deliver the contractually obligated hydropower to customers. Any other utility may purchase remaining capacity on WAPA’s system on the Open Access, Same-Time Information System.

WAPA’s transmission system includes power lines, substations, power transformers, communication towers, circuit breakers, interconnections and direct-current ties. WAPA personnel both maintain this system and operate balancing authorities, ensuring energy supply matches demand 24 hours a day. WAPA also offers ancillary services to customers to ensure reliable grid operations. [6]

WAPA built several parts of the important Path 15 corridor that connects power grids in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest (the rest was privately built by PG&E). Recently[ when? ], WAPA helped remedy a transmission bottleneck near Los Banos, California. That bottleneck was one of the reasons for the California electricity crisis in 2000-01. Another important transmission corridor WAPA built was Path 66, paralleling Path 15.

WAPA also owns and operates many electric power substations like the Mead substation to distribute power within the region.

WAPA settled with FERC and NERC for the 2011 blackout. [7] [8]

WAPA's customers

Various laws, including the Reclamation Project Act of 1939, [9] require WAPA to give preference to certain types of non-profit organizations seeking to purchase Federal power. Preference customers include state and Federal agencies, water and irrigation districts, municipalities, public utility districts, Native American tribes and rural electric cooperatives. A law may also designate specific entities that must receive preference in power sales from a particular powerplant or project. WAPA has some discretion regarding which preference entities should receive power and has allocated power to wildlife refuges, universities and mass transit systems.

Sometimes, legislation specifies a geographic area that receives priority to Federal hydropower. WAPA also places geographic limits on the marketing of power, which define the location of eligible customers. [10] Marketing area boundaries are usually based on past marketing practices, the location of the powerplants generating the electricity being sold, state boundary lines or river drainages.

Transmission Infrastructure Program

Section 402 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 amended the Hoover Power Plant Act of 1984 [11] to give WAPA authority to borrow up to $3.25 billion from the U.S. Treasury to pursue transmission projects that promote the delivery of renewable generation into the electric transmission grid.

To implement that authority, WAPA created the Transmission Infrastructure Program (TIP). [12] Two projects have been completed under this authority, and several others are in the development process.

Agency organization

WAPA employees conduct power sales, transmission operations and maintenance and engineering services at 51 duty stations organized under four regions, a management center and headquarters. The regions and management centers oversee the power and transmission contracts, operations and maintenance while centralized functions, such as finance, information technology, safety and security, are handled by headquarters.

The core offices are:

Senior executive team

Related Research Articles

Newlands Reclamation Act

The Reclamation Act of 1902 is a United States federal law that funded irrigation projects for the arid lands of 20 states in the American West.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Independent agency of the United States federal government

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is the United States federal agency that regulates the transmission and wholesale sale of electricity and natural gas in interstate commerce and regulates the transportation of oil by pipeline in interstate commerce. FERC also reviews proposals to build interstate natural gas pipelines, natural gas storage projects, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, in addition to licensing non-federal hydropower projects.

United States Bureau of Reclamation Government agency

The United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), and formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and operation of the diversion, delivery, and storage projects that it has built throughout the western United States for irrigation, water supply, and attendant hydroelectric power generation. Currently the USBR is the largest wholesaler of water in the country, bringing water to more than 31 million people, and providing one in five Western farmers with irrigation water for 10 million acres of farmland, which produce 60% of the nation's vegetables and 25% of its fruits and nuts. The USBR is also the second largest producer of hydroelectric power in the western United States.

Bonneville Power Administration United States federal agency that provides power supply to the Pacific Northwest

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) is an American federal agency operating in the Pacific Northwest. BPA was created by an act of Congress in 1937 to market electric power from the Bonneville Dam located on the Columbia River and to construct facilities necessary to transmit that power. Congress has since designated Bonneville to be the marketing agent for power from all of the federally owned hydroelectric projects in the Pacific Northwest. Bonneville is one of four regional Federal power marketing agencies within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The Federal Power Act is a law appearing in Chapter 12 of Title 16 of the United States Code, entitled "Federal Regulation and Development of Power". Enacted as the Federal Water Power Act on June 10, 1920, and amended many times since, its original purpose was to more effectively coordinate the development of hydroelectric projects in the United States. Representative John J. Esch (R-Wisconsin) was the sponsor.

The Open Access Same-Time Information System (OASIS), is an Internet-based system for obtaining services related to electric power transmission in North America. It is the primary means by which high-voltage transmission lines are reserved for moving wholesale quantities of electricity. The OASIS concept was originally conceived with the Energy Policy Act of 1992, and formalized in 1996 through Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Orders 888 and 889.

Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act

The Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act is a United States Act passed as part of the National Energy Act. It was meant to promote energy conservation and promote greater use of domestic energy and renewable energy. The law was created in response to the 1973 energy crisis, and one year in advance of a second energy crisis.

Southwestern Power Administration

The Southwestern Power Administration (Southwestern) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Energy. Southwestern's mission was established by Section 5 of the Flood Control Act of 1944. The agency is a power marketing administration responsible for marketing the hydroelectric power produced at 24 United States Army Corps of Engineers multipurpose dams. By law, the power and associated energy are marketed to publicly held entities such as rural electric cooperatives and municipal utilities. Southwestern has over one hundred such "preference" customers which ultimately serve over 8 million end use customers.

Regional transmission organization (North America)

A regional transmission organization (RTO) in the United States is an electric power transmission system operator (TSO) that coordinates, controls, and monitors a multi-state electric grid. The transfer of electricity between states is considered interstate commerce, and electric grids spanning multiple states are therefore regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The voluntary creation of RTOs was initiated by FERC Order No. 2000, issued on December 20, 1999. The purpose of the RTO is to promote economic efficiency, reliability, and non-discriminatory practices while reducing government oversight.

The Power Marketing Administration (PMA) is a United States federal agency within the Department of Energy responsible for marketing hydropower, primarily from multiple-purpose water projects operated by the Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the International Boundary and Water Commission.

The Imperial Irrigation District (IID) is an irrigation district that serves the Imperial Valley in Southern California. Established under the State Water Code, the IID supplies roughly 500,000 acres (200,000 ha) of Imperial Valley farmland with raw Colorado River water to support irrigation. In addition to providing irrigation, IID also supplies electrical energy to the valley.

Nimbus Dam Dam in Sacramento County, California

The Nimbus Dam is a base load hydroelectric dam on the American River near Folsom, California. Approximately 8,700 acre-feet (10,700 dam3) of water is retained by the dam. It is responsible for the impoundment of water from the American River to create the Lake Natoma reservoir. The dam stands 87 feet and spans 1,093 feet. The Nimbus powerplant consists of two generators. Each generator produces enough electrical power to power over 200,000 100-watt light bulbs, about 15,500 kilowatts of electrical power. Nimbus Dam consists of 18 radial gates, each with their own gate bays. These 18 gates today are the ones that were completed in 1955 along with the rest of the dam. Of the eighteen gates, four of them have had their coating system replaced. This protects the gates from a faster rate of corrosion. The other fourteen gates have the original coating.

Water & Power Development Authority

The Pakistan Water & Power Development Authority (WAPDA; Urdu: is a government-owned public utility maintaining power and water in Pakistan, although it does not manage thermal power. WAPDA includes Tarbela and Mangla dams among its resources. Its headquarters are in Lahore.

John C. Boyle Dam Dam in Oregon, USA

The John C. Boyle Dam is a hydroelectric dam located in southern Oregon, United States. It is on the upper Klamath River, south (downstream) of Keno, and about 12 miles north of the California border. Originally developed and known as Big Bend, the John C. Boyle dam and powerhouse complex was re-dedicated to honor the pioneer hydroelectric engineer who was responsible for the design of virtually all of the Klamath Hydroelectric Project.

There is a large array of stakeholders that provide services through electricity generation, transmission, distribution and marketing for industrial, commercial, public and residential customers in the United States. It also includes many public institutions that regulate the sector. In 1996, there were 3,195 electric utilities in the United States, of which fewer than 1,000 were engaged in power generation. This leaves a large number of mostly smaller utilities engaged only in power distribution. There were also 65 power marketers. Of all utilities, 2,020 were publicly owned, 932 were rural electric cooperatives, and 243 were investor-owned utilities. The electricity transmission network is controlled by Independent System Operators or Regional Transmission Organizations, which are not-for-profit organizations that are obliged to provide indiscriminate access to various suppliers in order to promote competition.

Hydropower policy in the United States

Hydropower policy in the United States includes all the laws, rules, regulations, programs and agencies that govern the national hydroelectric industry. Federal policy concerning waterpower developed over considerable time before the advent of electricity, and at times, has changed considerably, as water uses, available scientific technologies and considerations developed to the present day; over this period the priority of different, pre-existing and competing uses for water, flowing water and its energy, as well as for the water itself and competing available sources of energy have changed. Increased population and commercial demands spurred this developmental growth and many of the changes since, and these affect the technology's use today.

Natural Gas Act of 1938

The Natural Gas Act of 1938 was the first occurrence of the United States federal government regulating the natural gas industry. It was focused on regulating the rates charged by interstate natural gas transmission companies. In the years prior to the passage of the Act, concern arose about the monopolistic tendencies of the transmission companies and the fact that they were charging higher than competitive prices. The passage of the Act gave the Federal Power Commission (FPC) control over the regulation of interstate natural gas sales. Later on, the FPC was dissolved and became the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). FERC continues to regulate the natural gas industry to this day.

Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act of 2013

The Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act of 2013 is a bill that was introduced into the United States House of Representatives of the 113th United States Congress on January 15, 2013. It passed the House on February 13, 2013 by a vote of 422-0. President Obama signed the Act into law on August 9, 2013.

The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) is a non-profit Independent System Operator (ISO) serving California. It oversees the operation of California's bulk electric power system, transmission lines, and electricity market generated and transmitted by its member utilities. The CAISO is one of the largest ISOs in the world, delivering 300 million megawatt-hours of electricity each year and managing about 80% of California's electric flow.

References

  1. ↑ "Department of Energy Organization Act (1977 - S. 826)".
  2. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-01-10. Retrieved 2018-01-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ↑ "Power Marketing - Power Contracts".
  4. ↑ "About - Power Projects".
  5. ↑ "Power marketing".
  6. ↑ "WAPA - Transmission".
  7. ↑ FERC Approves Fourth Settlement in 2011 Southwest Blackout Case Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
  8. ↑ Western Area Power Administration-Desert Southwest Region Reaches Settlement Agreement with FERC, NERC
  9. ↑ "Reclamation Project Act of 1939 U.S.C."
  10. ↑ "Project marketing areas".
  11. ↑ "H.R.4275 - 98th Congress (1983-1984): Hoover Powerplant Act of 1984". 3 May 1984.
  12. ↑ "Transmission Infrastructure Program". Archived from the original on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2015-08-14.
  13. ↑ "Headquarters".
  14. ↑ "Desert Southwest".
  15. ↑ "About the Rocky Mountain Region".
  16. ↑ "About the Sierra Nevada Region".
  17. ↑ "About the Upper Great Plains Region".
  18. ↑ "CRSP Management Center".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.